Ezria
by ishipJauren
Summary: One shot based on the season 5 spoiler about Ezra losing his memory. Knowing what she knows, will Aria and Ezra reunite? This is for all those hardcore Ezria shippers who still haven't given up on them. Complete.


**A/N: I read a spoiler about Season 5 which said Ezra would lose his memory and I couldn't get this idea out of my head so I decided to write this one shot. The whole Ezra-writing-a book thing was just such a half-baked ridiculous plotline and it was blatantly obvious that they had only just thought of it pre season 4 and in the process had ruined Ezria /3 I had to write this to make myself feel better and if it helps anyone else, then that's great! Also, I can't stop listening to 'ZZ Ward- Last love song' which feautures Aria and Ezra in the video, it's pretty cool, cehck it out: watch?v=TrcVAEHSgDw :) Hope you enjoyed this one shot and please let me know what you think!**

Aria kept replaying it over and over in her head. It had been weeks since it happened, and still she couldn't erase the images from her mind. Ezra bursting through the door, saying he knew who A was. A with a gun. Ezra getting shot. The past few weeks had been a blur for Aria: she spent her days at Ezra's bedside at the hospital and her nights tossing and turning, constantly hearing the gunshot in her head and then seeing Ezra bloodied and on the ground as he lost consciousness. Above all, she felt guilty. Guilty because she'd been so angry at him. She thought she hated him. But after the accident, she'd realised she loved him more than ever. How could she not? He was the Darcy to her Elizabeth. They were inevitable, really. And after the intense, unadulterated fear she felt when she thought he was going to d-. She stopped that thought immediately. When she thought he was going to not be here anymore, that told her all she needed to know. Despite everything he had done; his thing with Alison; the stupid book; lying to her throughout their whole relationship; no matter what, she still loved him. Stupidly. A loud ringing from her bedside table snapped her out of her reverie, and she reached blearily for her phone. She saw 'hospital' flashing on the screen and instantly her heart dropped as she began to panic.

"Hello?" She answered, her voice squeaky. Her heart was beating so loudly, she was sure the person on the other end of the phone could hear it.

"Miss Montgomery, I'm calling from Rosewood Community Hospital." A female voice replied.

"Is Ezra okay?" Aria asked breathlessly, feeling a gut-wrenching ache in the pit of her tummy.

"Mr Fitz is very well. In fact, he's being discharged today. He asked us to call you. You're free to pick him in an hour." At the woman's words, Aria let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Okay. I'll be there. Thank you." She grinned insanely down the phone, dying to let out a scream. After hanging up she decided to call her friends, and dialled Hanna first as she had missed (or rather ignored) a call from her just a little while earlier.

"I wasn't expecting you to call back." Hanna remarked, not unkindly, when she answered.

"I'm sorry I've been crappy lately. But, the hospital just called. He's okay, Han. He's coming home today!" Aria squealed, jumping up and down on her bed.

"That's so great! I'm so relieved. Do you need anything?" Hanna enquired.

"They said I could pick him up in an hour so I thought I'd go to the grocery store and then to his apartment, you know clean up a little and stock the fridge. You wanna come?"

"Pick me up in 10?"

As Aria walked into the hospital, she felt like an enormous idiot. Before leaving the house, acting on impulse and encouraged by Hanna, she had decided to get a little dressed up and settled on wearing a newish dress and a little extra make-up. But now that she was minutes away from seeing Ezra she felt ridiculously overdressed. The guy had been in hospital for a month; her choice of attire was hardly going to concern him; that is, if he even noticed. And they weren't back together. More like, the break up was put on hold on account of Ezra having a bullet hole in his body. But now that he was okay, she didn't know what the protocol was and how she was supposed to act. She'd only stopped being mad at him because he she thought she was going to lose him but now that he was okay, did that mean she had to be mad at him again? Taking a deep breath, she paused for a moment before knocking timidly on his door and pushing it open, she walked inside to see Ezra dressed and waiting, and Dr Andrews checking something off on the clipboard.

"Hey." She said, softly.

"Hey." He replied, his eyes focused intently on her.

"You're good to go, Ezra." Dr Andrews smiled at him, before going to the door and holding it open.

"Thank you, Doctor." Ezra replied, standing up and walking slowly over to the door.

"I trust you'll be in good hands?" Dr Andrews glanced at me.

"Oh, yeah. The best." Ezra assured him.

"Take care." Dr Andrews patted him on the back.

"Thank you, Doctor. For everything." Aria shook the Doctor's hand, then taking Ezra's arm in her own, led him out of the room and then the hospital. Once in the car, she began to drive in the direction of his apartment in an amiable silence, neither of them feeling the need to talk. In his apartment block, she helped him up the stairs and then let them into his apartment.

"You still have your key." Ezra observed, quietly.

"I was here before, I'm sorry." Aria held his key out to him, once he was seated on the couch.

"No, no. I like that you kept it." Ezra smiled at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

"Are you hungry? You must be hungry. Let me fix you something to eat. That's why I was here earlier. I cleaned up a little and stocked the fridge. I'll make your favourite." Aria spoke super-fast and turned away from him, hurrying into the kitchen. Her face flushed and she felt flustered under Ezra's gaze. He was still looking her at the way he used to look at her.

"Aria. Come sit with me." Ezra called, and she heard him move on the couch so she assumed he had turned around to look at her.

"Let me just make you something to eat." Aria replied, refusing to face him.

"Aria, please. I'm not hungry." He replied.

"Tea or coffee, then?" She asked, desperately.

"Nothing. I'm fine."

"Maybe you should get some rest. You're probably tired." She suggested, aimlessly moving pots and pans around. She was trying to keep busy, anything, just so she didn't have to have the talk with him. The one they'd been avoiding. The talk which didn't seem relevant when he was in hospital, hooked up to various machines. But the one that loomed over them now, almost overdue.

"I'm not hungry, thirsty, or tired. I'm pretty great, actually." Ezra assured her, and reluctantly she placed the cloth that was in her hand back on the sideboard and finally turned around to see Ezra staring intently at her. She stared straight back, unsure what to say. Different sentences raced through her mind but none of them seemed to fit; none of them seemed right. Silently, Ezra patted the space next to him and looked at her, expectantly. Hesitantly but not unwillingly, Aria walked over to the couch but sat opposite him instead.

"Thank you." Ezra murmured, barely above a whisper. Aria didn't respond.

"For coming to see me every day at the hospital. For today. For cleaning my apartment and stocking my fridge." Ezra went on, his eyes never leaving hers.

"It was nothing." Aria shook her head, firmly.

"I don't deserve it."

"I couldn't just walk away. Not after seeing you like that."

"I don't deserve you."

"We don't have to talk about this now."

"We do."

"Please, Ezra."  
"I swear to you, every word I said to you was true. I never lied about loving you. You have to believe me."

"We can't turn back time. What's done is done. I can't just flip a switch and start to trust you again."

"I know that and I don't expect you to either. But despite what you might think, you weren't just a stepping stone. You were unexpected. You were exactly what I wanted but simultaneously didn't want because I knew you'd get hurt. But I couldn't help myself. I completely fell in love with you. Please tell me you know that."

"Ezra-"

"I couldn't bear the idea of you thinking I'd never loved you. You were the only good thing in my life. Our love was the only good thing I had."

"But you annihilated it." Aria stuttered, tears falling thick and fast from her eyes.

"I know and I'm more sorry than I can put into words."

"I don't want to argue with you, Ezra. You're still getting better."

"Argue with me. Swear at me, shout at me, hit me. Anything other than this. You're acting like we're strangers; like I'm nothing to you, like I never was."  
"I don't know how I'm supposed to be, Ezra. I don't know what we are anymore. I thought you were the one person I could run to, and it turned out I should have been running from you."

"Don't say that, please don't say that. I could never harm you, not intentionally. My actions were stupid, misguided, but never malicious. I guess I just idiotically believed that even after finding out, you could still love me because what we had was too good, too special."

"You broke my heart."

"You have the only copy of the book. It's over, it's done."

"But you still wrote it. Knowing what you were risking, you chose the book."

"I started it before I met you. I never expected for you to fall into my life. It wasn't supposed to be complicated. It was straightforward. And then I met you and we were perfect for each other, except that stupid book was like an albatross around my neck, so I stopped.

"Until we broke up and you started it again."

"Because I thought I finally had all the pieces."

"You used me. At least be man enough to admit it."

"Aria, I loved you. I still love you."

"Was it worth it?"

"No. If I could go back, I wouldn't write it. I wouldn't go near Alison. The minute I found out she was still in high school, I called it off. And nothing happened, I swear. You know how she could be, Aria. She made lying an art form."

"But I'm in high school and it didn't stop you."

"Because you're you. I couldn't. We tried to, didn't we?"

"My heart is completely broken and destroyed but it still loves you with all the smashed up, tiny, hurting, little pieces." Aria whispered as fresh, hot, tears fell down her face.

"You're killing me." Instantly Ezra was at her side, holding her, and it felt like the world had been put to rights. That she was back where she belonged. Tears streamed down Ezra's face, as he kept his tight grip around her.

"I will never stop loving you. Do you think you could give me another chance?" He choked, before gently wiping away her tears.

"I don't know. I don't know." Aria sighed. She laid her head on his shoulders, clinging to him, unashamedly.

"What do you mean you thought you had all the pieces?" Aria asked suddenly, realising what he had said.

"I thought it was Mrs DiLaurentis. But A killed her so obviously I was wrong." Ezra looked at her, bemused.

"Ezra, what are you talking about?" Aria sat up and frowned at him, the panic starting to overcome her once again.

"I gave you the book. I thought it was Alison's mom." He repeated, once again.

"You mean you don't know?" Aria whispered, her eyes widening in horror as she slowly began to realise what he was saying.

"I don't know what?" Ezra questioned.

"On the night you got hurt, you said you knew who A was. The real A." Aria whispered, dumbstruck.

Ezra's own eyes widened in unadulterated shock and horror as the gravitas of her words hit him. He looked at her, disbelief etched across his face before finally opening his mouth to answer: "I don't remember."


End file.
